text: ftpd_selinux(8) ftpd SELinux policy documentation ftpd_selinux(8) NAME ftpd_selinux - Security-Enhanced Linux policy for ftp daemons. DESCRIPTION Security-Enhanced Linux provides security for ftp daemons via flexible mandatory access control. FILE_CONTEXTS SELinux requires files to have a file type. File types may be specified with semanage and are restored with restorecon. Policy governs the access that daemons have to files. Allow ftp servers to read the /var/ftp directory by adding the pub- lic_content_t file type to the directory and by restoring the file type. semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_t "/var/ftp(/.*)?" restorecon -F -R -v /var/ftp Allow ftp servers to read and write /var/tmp/incoming by adding the public_content_rw_t type to the directory and by restoring the file type. This also requires the allow_ftpd_anon_write boolean to be set. semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_rw_t "/var/ftp/incoming(/.*)?" restorecon -F -R -v /var/ftp/incoming BOOLEANS SELinux policy is based on least privilege required and may also be customizable by setting a boolean with setsebool. Allow ftp servers to read and write files with the public_content_rw_t file type. setsebool -P allow_ftpd_anon_write on Allow ftp servers to read or write files in the user home directories. setsebool -P ftp_home_dir on Allow ftp servers to read or write all files on the system. setsebool -P allow_ftpd_full_access on Allow ftp servers to use cifs for public file transfer services. setsebool -P allow_ftpd_use_cifs on Allow ftp servers to use nfs for public file transfer services. setsebool -P allow_ftpd_use_nfs on system-config-selinux is a GUI tool available to customize SELinux pol- icy settings. AUTHOR This manual page was written by Dan Walsh <firstname.lastname@example.com>. SEE ALSO selinux(8), ftpd(8), setsebool(8), semanage(8), restorecon(8) email@example.com 17 Jan 2005 ftpd_selinux(8) |


text:
"We're on the edge of something," says Tucker, chairman of the church council.
"Nobody is disagreeing with the fact that we cannot remain as we always have. Status quo will not allow us to stay here. If we get community support, we can probably weather the storm. If we don't and it falls flat," — and this is the point where he pauses — "then we might be forced into a position we don't want to be in."
What he's talking about is being forced to close the church.
Cochrane Street United Church isn't unique from others in the downtown St. John's area, of all denominations, when it comes to its issues, including an aging building and an aging congregation that has declined over the past 10 years or so, making it difficult to stay afloat.
Money that comes in by the way of rental fees for concerts under the church's massive copper dome, or use of its gymnasium or recently-renovated kitchen, quickly leaves through the furnace, with annual heating costs totalling up to $65,000 — maybe more this year, the worst the council can remember, because of the cold temperatures during the winter. In January, February and March, the church was burning 2,500 litres of oil a week, leaving very little money to cover operating costs.
Part of the problem comes down to the building's design. The original wooden structure burned down in 1914 and the current church was brought in from the mainland, already designed and pre-built.
"This building was supposed to go to the Mediterranean, in a country that had an affiliation with Germany at the time," Tucker explains. "Once the First World War broke out, they stopped shipping anything to any German territories. After the fire, they were looking for a new building, and they ended up getting this one."
Designed for a much warmer climate, the church had been conceived as its own air-conditioning system: hot air would go into grates in the sanctuary and travel up, where it would be cooled in the dome. It's not exactly ideal for typical winter weather in St. John's.
Complicating things is the church's magnificent Casavant pipe organ, the largest of its kind in Atlantic Canada, with 3,315 pipes. It must be kept at a continuous temperate of no less than 12 C to prevent deterioration.
"For the last 10 years, it's been a real difficult time here, but the congregation has done a really remarkable job and they've kept the building open despite this," Tucker says. "They've done a really good job of all that. It's just that the membership is declining, everybody's getting worn out, every year there are more funerals and no one's coming back to replace them.
"If we have (to leave), our first priority would be that our church family would get to stay together, whatever we do and wherever we do it."
St. John's Coun. Dave Lane, who is co-chair of the city's heritage advisory committee with Coun. Sandy Hickman, says there are a number of downtown churches seeing the same problems.
"It's across the board. They only have maybe 200, 300 families in the congregation and they just can't fund their community service as well as the upkeep of the buildings. They're nearing a crisis, I think, and we want to find ways to help avoid that," Lane says.
To that end, the committee held a meeting with representatives from all downtown churches last week, to start a discussion on what they can do together to alleviate some of the issues. There have been talks about possibly saving money by sharing insurance policies or contractors, for example, and in some cases, this has already begun. The city also hopes to help the churches come up with ways of repurposing parts of their structures to allow for uses that aren't church related.
Thursday evening, the council of Cochrane Street United Church will be holding a public meeting to discuss the possibility of creating a music, performance, other arts or community space within the annex building, which opens onto Bannerman Street and Stewart Avenue, at the back and side of the church.
Because of the acoustics in the sanctuary, the church has long been known as a prime venue for performances, and has hosted events by the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Johnny Reid and others. Other creative groups, from drumming circles to film crews to musical theatre camps, regularly rent out the annex building, and the congregation is keen to keep its relationship with the arts community going.
The church is open to the possibility of redeveloping the heritage-designated annex (which currently consists of three floors, including a gym, lounge, kitchen, office space and meeting rooms and measures about 7,000 square feet) and no option is off the table, Tucker says, though the ideal situation would be to come up with a partnership or plan that would reach out to others and allow current tenants, a daycare that's been in the spot almost 40 years, to remain. Tucker and Rev. Miriam Bowlby, minister at Cochrane Street, insist the church isn't interested in making any partnership about religion.
"I think you want something in the building that's of value to the community, that's going to provide a service to the people who live in the area," says Bowlby, minister at the church for the past 3 1/2 years. "I think that's the heart of what we want. You could probably turn this place into condos, which would give people a place to live, but it would serve a very narrow population and I think there's going to be a growing need in the community. The more affluent the city gets, the more the people who have nothing are going to hurt. Music is one of those things that is helpful to the community."
Cochrane Street currently has a number of outreach programs: for example, it partners with Bridges to Hope to stuff school bags with supplies to be distributed to children in need every fall, and holds an annual summer barbecue in Bannerman Park, free of charge, for anyone in need of a bite to eat. Each spring, the church offers a Sunday dinner for a couple of bucks for those less fortunate — this past spring saw 125 diners.
"I think it would be a huge loss to the city if the churches (downtown) had to shut down," Lane says. "No only would we lose a tenant of the building they belong to, which are important buildings for the city, we also lose the services they provide. It would be a huge loss to the city to see any of them have to leave the building that they have built. As well, from an historical point of view, using that building for what it was intended, I think, is important for a continuing story out of St. John's."
Kyle McDavid, owner and co-artistic director of Best Kind Productions in St. John's, has rented Cochrane Street church as a venue to teach acting classes and perform "Freckleface Strawberry," a children's musical, last December.
"Our city is an arts haven, teeming with music and theatre production, but with very few rehearsal and performance spaces available," he tells The Telegram. "Cochrane Street United Church has become an invaluable venue to me. The idea of a renovated hall, possibly with some sort of stage, is really exciting."
The public meeting to discuss creating an arts/music/performance/community space will be held at the church, at 81 Cochrane Street, Thursday at 8 p.m. Anyone with ideas or proposals who cannot attend but wants to submit them can do so by e-mailing Tucker at [email protected]. A detailed expression of interest is available from the church, and proposals should be submitted by Sept. 5.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Up-to-the-minute news about UFC on FUEL TV 8, taking place Sunday, March 3 at Saitama Arena in Tokyo, Japan (airing live Saturday, March 2 in North America)
Japanese middleweight contender Yushin "Thunder" Okami has been added to the Ultimate Fighting Championship® card scheduled for Mar. 3 at the Saitama Super Arena. The UFC® announced that the 31-year-old, from Japan's renowned Wajutsu Keishukai Gym, will meet former Olympic judo competitor Hector "Lightning" Lombard in middleweight (185 lbs.) action when the organization returns to Japan.
Okami (29-7-0) holds wins over several UFC veterans, including UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who he defeated via disqualification in 2006. Lombard and Okami, both coming off dominant wins in December, continue their run toward the middleweight title. Lombard (32-3-1), a Cuban-Australian mixed martial artist and former Olympic judoka, has a 4th degree black belt in Judo and is known for his vicious power punching.
Also announced on the main card will be an intense featherweight bout between Rani Yahya and Mizuto Hirota. Hirota (14-5-1), who has never been knocked out in his career, is a veteran of the Sengoku and DEEP organizations in Asia. Prior to his North America debut in STRIKEFORCE last July, he was 4-1 in his past five fights. Brazilian Yahya (17-7) has won all but two of his fights by way of submission and holds notable wins over Mark Hominick and Eddie Wineland.
Silva vs. Stann to Headline UFC Japan 2013
updated December 12
Former PRIDE® middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva will step into the
Octagon against top contender and decorated U.S. Marine Brian Stann in a
five-round, light heavyweight bout on Sunday, March 3 when the Ultimate
Fighting Championship® returns to Japan's Saitama Super Arena.
Other bouts confirmed for the event at today's press conference in Japan include:
Mark Hunt vs. Stefan "Skyscraper" Struve - heavyweight (previously announced)
Takanori Gomi vs. Diego Sanchez - lightweight
Dong-Hyun Kim vs. Siyar Bahadurzada - welterweight
Riki Fukuda vs. Brad Tavares - middleweight
Cristiano Marcello vs. Kazuki Tokudome - lightweight
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Bryan Caraway - bantamweight
Alex Caceres vs. Kyung Ho Kang - bantamweight
Click here for ticket on-sale information.
Hunt vs. Struve Anchoring UFC's Return to Japan
updated December 4
Following UFC 144's success in February of 2012, the UFC will return to the Land of the Rising Sun on March 3 for a broadcast airing live on FUEL TV on March 2 in the United States.
The first big bout announced for the card is a heavyweight showdown between Stefan "Skyscraper" Struve and Mark "The Super Samoan" Hunt. The fight between the two men was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 146 in May of 2012 but was cancelled when Hunt suffered an injury in training. Struve went on to defeat Lavar Johnson at that event and Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC Nottingham in September; the March date will mark Hunt's first foray into the Octagon since defeating Cheick Kongo at the 2012 Japan event.
The spectacular matchup is not only visually arresting, as 5-foot-10 Hunt faces seven-foot-tall Struve, but one that will also have a significant impact on the heavyweight pecking order, as both fighters have been on a tear in recent bouts.
More information on the event, including ticketing details, will be available in coming weeks.


text:
Musikmesse 2011: Gibson Melody Maker series in pictures
Gibson Melody Maker series
Musikmesse 2011: In characteristically idiosyncratic style, Gibson chose to launch its new range of affordable USA-made Melody Maker electric guitars at Frankfurt without a sniff of any detailed information or pictures being sent out to the media. Indeed, at the time of writing, there's only a very brief mention of the new line and one blink-and-you'll-miss-it gallery image on Gibson.com.
However, MusicRadar was on hand with a camera in the darkest recesses of the Gibson booth at the show to not only bring you pictures of the whole range, but tell you everything you need to know about the new Melody Makers. Not to be confused with the company's traditional Melody Maker design, the new range comprises four models utilising the iconic Les Paul, SG, Explorer and Flying V outlines.
Key specifications across the board include maple bodies, mahogany slim-taper necks with torrefied maple fingerboards and wrap-around tailpieces. All four shapes are available in satin blue, satin ebony and satin white, and they come stripped-down and ready to rock with just a single 491T humbucker at the bridge and a master volume control.
We've already seen UK street prices for these models as low as £449 including a gigbag, which, for a 'proper' USA Gibson is very tempting indeed. Whether these will be a roaring success for Gibson or merely cannibalise Epiphone sales remains to be seen, but the office consensus is that they look very cool indeed, albeit with something of a 'thrown together on a Friday afternoon' vibe. We'd like a white V and an Explorer in blue please.
Click onwards for a closer look at Gibson's new-for-2011 Melody Maker series...


text:
PARIS – Football, fate and his own refusal to take age lying down are carrying David Beckham back to the scene of his greatest triumph as a footballer.
Beckham's hair has changed — repeatedly — since that famous night in the Camp Nou in Barcelona in 1999 when he fired in the corner that won the European Cup for Manchester United.
What hasn't changed is Beckham's desire to influence matches, to stay relevant as a footballer and not simply as a fashion icon. For putting himself in a position to keep on doing that at age 37, for taking such good care of his body and competitor's mind, Beckham deserves nothing but admiration.
But he cannot forever delay the inevitable. His first Champions League game in three years made that painfully clear. Beckham was the weakest link in the Paris Saint-Germain team that did itself proud against Barcelona on Tuesday night in the enthralling first leg of their quarterfinal. The 2-2 draw allows Paris to believe that victory against arguably the best club team and, in Lionel Messi, the best player in football history isn't impossible in the return game in Barcelona next Wednesday.
The charitable view would be that Beckham merely had an off night, instead of a night where he showed his age to a global audience of millions. He certainly didn't embarrass himself. One hopes he would retire before that happens.
Barcelona's play, as quick and wriggly as a jar of tadpoles, has a habit of making rivals look lead-footed in comparison and Beckham, by his own admittance, was never the quickest of players. So allowances must be made. Still, Beckham looked particularly sluggish at times and reluctant to commit himself to tackles as though he sensed he would be a yard or two slow. Unlike when Beckham was in his pomp, the match — a frenzied clash of styles and football philosophies — largely flowed around him, not through him.
There was no faulting the logic of Paris manager Carlo Ancelotti in choosing Beckham ahead of Marco Verratti, a 20-year-old Italian with more energy but less experience than the former England captain playing his third decade of professional football.
Ancelotti wanted Beckham to project PSG forward, to reverse the flow of play toward Barcelona's goal, with his trademark and still accurate passes. But Beckham had too few opportunities to do that because Barcelona, as always, kept the ball so sublimely. Like so many of their opponents, Beckham found himself scampering after the shadows of Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and their teammates in lurid orange and yellow.
"It's never easy playing against players like the midfield that they've got, because they pass the ball around well," he said. "You are constantly chasing, because they are so comfortable on the ball, every one of their players from the goal-keeper, the back four, and midfield and up front."
Playing against such royalty in a Champions League quarterfinal marked a milestone for PSG's money-no-obstacle Qatari owners as they transform the club into a European football force. Like Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich at Chelsea or the Abu Dhabi owners of Manchester City, they are proving that success in football can be bought as well as be earned.
More than €250 million ($320 million) in player investments in nearly two years of owning the club has bought not just a collection of individual stars but what, against Barcelona, looked like the makings of a genuine team, one with sufficient character to twice come back from a goal down to draw with the four-time European champions.
"This is ..." the stadium announcer bellowed as players walked off.
"Paris!" the Parc des Princes crowd howled in response.
The Paris arena, like Old Trafford in Manchester, the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and Barcelona's own Camp Nou, is going to become one of the cauldrons that top teams will have to grow accustomed to visiting, because there's no sign of the Qatari investment drying up any time soon.
"I'm very proud of the work in the past 18 months," said PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi. "Being in the Champions League quarterfinal, playing the best team in the world, is magnificent for Paris, for France."
That Beckham started such an important match was a poke in the eye for the cynics who said PSG recruited him mainly to sell jerseys and to raise its profile outside France. It showed Beckham is still a player, not merely a global brand. It even seems possible that he could extend what was initially billed as a five-month stay for another season, to his 39th birthday.
"We'll see," he said. "I've spoken to the owners, I've spoken to the manager. I know how happy they are with me and they know how happy I am here. But I'm not getting any younger, so I'll enjoy the rest of the season and then we'll sit down and talk."
That Ancelotti felt compelled to take off Beckham for the frenetic final 20 minutes against Barcelona when three goals were scored was a sign of his limitations now as a player that will only get more glaring with time. That substitution came after Beckham lost control of the ball and then clumsily tried to get it back by bringing down Alexis Sanchez, an error that again suggested the game was a smidgen too quick him. Referee Wolfgang Stark showed Beckham the yellow card and Ancelotti brought him off two minutes later. Verratti, his replacement, impressed with his vigor in defense and attack, making a solid argument to be picked to start the second leg next week.
For Beckham, returning to Europe's biggest stadium will revive memories of trips there playing for Real Madrid and, above all, of United's 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich in the 1999 final, when substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored in injury time.
Beckham called that "my greatest memory of playing there."
That Beckham now has a chance to make more Camp Nou memories 14 years later is nothing short of amazing.
Will they be good ones?
John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester


text:
Obama tells us that we must "make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," and that "only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation." Despite the fact that most of us are taught early in life that "actions speak louder than words," the majority of adults have more deeply internalized a lesson directly opposed to that maxim: when you judge an authority figure, you must give special weight to his words and what he says his intentions are. If his actions profoundly contradict what he "talks" about, it is the actions you must disregard. There is a direct line between forcing a child to believe that physical and/or emotional abuse is inflicted by his parents (or other caregivers) "for his own good" and arguing that the United States must invade and destroy a village, or an entire country, for its own good. Most adults spend their lives refusing to see the connection.
In fact, how a person acts is of infinitely greater significance than what he says. And toward the conclusion of his remarks, Obama conceded as much: "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us."
Is it "civil and honest" to ask how Obama is treating us, those poor, lost souls who are not "good and important"? I dare to proceed in the belief that it is. In answering that question, one fact above all must be mentioned first. That it is not -- and this fact has almost never been mentioned in all the interminable debates about the violence in Arizona -- reveals a great deal about the moral and intellectual rot that suffocates these wretched United States.
While I am not willing to excoriate Gabriella Giffords for her support of the military state while she is in her hospital bed, I am happy to point out that Obama's soon-to-be-famous speech, beautifully written and utterly heart-felt, is fake and cruel in its pandering to American vanity and pride. The same man who declared he can assassinate his enemies at will said the following:
The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better in our private lives - to be better friends and neighbors, co-workers and parents. And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud. It should be because we want to live up to the example of public servants like John Roll and Gabby Giffords, who knew first and foremost that we are all Americans, and that we can question each other's ideas without questioning each other's love of country, and that our task, working together, is to constantly widen the circle of our concern so that we bequeath the American dream to future generations.
I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here - they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.
If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.
May God bless and keep those we've lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America.
The very last thing we could ever possibly want would be for our imaginary God to give us what we deserve. We not only accept that our president is a wanna-be assassin, we give him money and campaign for him. We kill little girls all the time, little girls who are just as loved as Christina. We would have to be crazy to kill them, evil, out of control and utterly merciless. And yet we do.


text:
George Harrison still a hero in Bangladesh
(This is the first of a two-part series on George Harrison and the Concert for Bangladesh. Read part two here. All photos by Larry Luxner.)
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Hidden from view along a side street in this dusty, traffic-choked metropolis of 12 million people, Dhaka's Liberation War Museum seems an unlikely place to honor the memory of George Harrison.
Yet here, in a second-floor gallery crammed with glass cases full of aging rifles, machine guns, spears, bayonets and other weapons of war is a bronze plaque dedicated to the "quiet Beatle" who preached love and compassion.
"Author, composer, peacemaker, gardener, lyricist, musician, philanthropist, poet," reads the inscription. "Established the Material World Foundation to explore diverse forms of artistic expression and to support charities and those with special needs. Devotee of Krishna who found peace in his garden. Passed away Los Angeles USA, 29 November 2001. Our love and gratitude always."
The plaque, donated in February 2009 by British singer and Harrison fan Danis Theophilus, is a testament to the former Beatle who organized the world's first showbiz charity event — a full 14 years before Bob Geldof staged the 1985 Live Aid concert to raise money for Ethiopian famine victims.
Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, which was actually two benefit concerts held Aug. 1, 1971, was attended by more than 40,000 people at New York's Madison Square Garden. Ticket sales from the concert itself generated $243,000 in emergency assistance for starving refugees at the height of the country's 1971 war of liberation against Pakistan — and sales of the boxed three-record set and a subsequent 99-minute film, "The Concert for Bangladesh," have since raised $15 million for UNICEF projects around the world.
In the film, Harrison is asked by a reporter: "With all the enormous problems in the world, how did you happen to choose this one to do something about?" His simple reply: "Because I was asked by a friend if I would help, you know. That's all."
That friend was Ravi Shankar, the venerated Bengali sitarist. Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, who performs June 24 at Baltimore's Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, also participated in that groundbreaking 1971 event. So did Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and Leon Russell. (The two other ex-Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, declined for their own personal reasons).
"Every Bangladeshi has respect for George Harrison. All of us can recite the words to his songs," said the country's information secretary, Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, who was a 13-year-old war refugee at the time. He noted proudly that the country's national TV network traditionally re-broadcasts parts of the concert every year on two occasions: Independence Day (March 26) and Victory Day (December 16).
With nearly 160 million people crowded into an area the size of Maryland and Virginia combined, Bangladesh is the most densely populated country on Earth. While its people are no longer on the verge of starvation, the nation faces tremendous challenges including poverty, corruption and the ravages of climate change. And nearly a third of its citizens are under 15 — too young to remember the extravaganza that put their country on the map for tens of millions of people around the world.
The concert marked Harrison's first appearance before a paying audience since the Beatles' last tour five years earlier, and included live performances of his classic tunes, "Here comes the Sun," "My Sweet Lord," "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
"George Harrison was a very powerful and influential man, and a good friend of Bangladesh," says Mahbubul Alam, the museum's general manager, and a former "freedom fighter" who recalls those painful days all too well.
"I was in the war, fighting on the front against the Pakistani Army. We had only a one-band radio and that was for getting information from the outside world. After liberation, we came to know that a concert for Bangladesh had been held in Madison Square Garden," he said. "That concert acted like a catalyst. The U.S. government did not support Bangladesh, but we got the people's support, and that concert helped a lot."
That the big event took place at all was a testament to the persistence of Ravi Shankar, whom Harrison reverently called "the godfather of world music."
Born in India of Bengali parentage, it was Shankar who persuaded Harrison to use his influence to help relieve the suffering of his people in East Pakistan, as Bangladesh had been known prior to independence from West Pakistan — more than 1,000 miles to the west. For nine months, they bore the brunt of an all-out war that would eventually kill three million Bengalis and turn another eight million into desperate refugees in neighboring India.
"I was very disturbed and wanted to do something for the people of Bangladesh, something on a very large scale that might bring in a lot of money and also, you know, awareness," Shankar wrote. "So I thought I would ask George, even if he could not take part himself, if he would advise me, ask other artists about it, write or talk about it. Then maybe we could do a big function where we could raise $25,000 or $50,000. He was very deeply moved and said he would be glad to help in the planning — even to participate."
Shankar continued: "Things started moving very fast then. George called Ringo in Spain where he was working in a film, and he talked to Leon Russell and all of these wonderful musicians from the west coast and east coast who came to play. And he contacted [Allen] Klein, who has taken care of the business and administration … In a period of only four or five weeks, all of this was done."
Even though Shankar knew some money would be raised from the concert, "when you think of the amount being spent on almost eight million refugees, and so many of them children, of course it is like a drop in the ocean. Maybe it will take care of them for only two or three days. But that is not the point."
Maryland resident Alif Laila is a prominent sitarist who was born and raised in Dhaka. Earlier this month, she performed at a Bangladeshi Embassy function marking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between her country and the United States.
"Music is a very powerful tool, and that concert re-energized our cause," said Laila, who has met Ravi Shankar backstage several times — most recently at a Shankar performance in Baltimore four years ago. "We were going through a very dark time, and it made us feel good."
Read part two here.
And another Beatles' story here.
George Harrison exclusive music to be released.
Larry Luxner is a freelance writer with The Washington Diplomat and former editor of CubaNews. Born and raised in Miami and now based in Israel, Larry has reported from every country in the Western Hemisphere. His specialty is Latin America and the Middle East, and he's written more than 2,000 articles for publications ranging from National Journal to Saudi Aramco World. Larry also runs an Internet-based stock photo agency at www.luxner.com.


text:
FORT WORTH, Texas – Weeks before "affluenza" teen fugitive Ethan Couch was arrested in Mexico with a cheap disguise of dyed hair and beard, his mother had pulled $30,000 from a bank account and told his father he'd never see them again, according to her arrest warrant.
Just how far the mother and son planned to get with the $30,000 and the pickup truck they used to drive across the border was unclear.
When arrested, the pair had made it about 1,200 miles to the Pacific coast resort town of Puerto Vallarta, where a pizza delivery order led authorities to their apartment.
Details of the cash withdrawal and the warning were released Friday, when a Tarrant County judge set a $1 million bond for Tonya Couch on a charge of hindering apprehension of a felon.
Her son remains in custody in Mexico after winning a legal delay of his deportation back to Texas.
Ethan Couch's case drew national attention and derision when he sentenced to 10 years' probation for a 2013 drunken driving wreck that killed four people and injured several others, including passengers in his pickup truck.
A defense witness argued that Couch had been coddled by his wealthy parents, a condition the expert called "affluenza." The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew ridicule.
Law enforcement officials say Tonya, 48, and Ethan, 18, fled to Mexico after a video surfaced that appeared to show the teen at a party drinking alcohol. If he was also drinking, it would violate his probation and could lead to jail time.
Law enforcement officials believe the mother and son had a going away party shortly before driving across the border in her pickup truck, making their way to Puerto Vallarta. They were first tracked to a resort condominium after ordering pizza. They had moved on by the time authorities arrived, but a witness directed police to an apartment in Puerto Vallarta's old town.
When they were arrested, authorities said Ethan Couch appeared to have tried to disguise himself by dying his blond hair black and his beard brown.
Telephone and email messages left with the Tarrant County sheriff's office and Tonya Couch attorney Stephanie Patten were not immediately returned Saturday.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Ethan Couch was "scared" after the video surfaced and did not respond to a Dec. 3 call from his probation officer to report for a drug test. He also did not appear for a scheduled meeting with the officer on Dec. 10.
A search warrant of bank and phone records found Tonya Couch had withdrawn $30,000 from a personal account and there was no other activity after Dec. 3. That day she also called her former husband Fred Couch to say he would never see them again.
Phone numbers used by the mother and son were no longer active after that date, according to the warrant.
Fred and Tonya Couch divorced in 2006. Authorities have previously said they had no evidence Fred Couch, who owns a North Texas sheet metal factory, was involved in helping Tonya and Ethan Couch flee.


text:
Story highlights
Longtime couple of 11 years tie the knot 36 hours before he dies
Hospital staff in Amarillo, Texas, make cake, decorate hospital bedroom and give suit to dying man for his last-minute nuptials
On Friday, when the hospital chaplain asked Raul Hinojosa for his final wish, the cancer-wracked patient just said, "I want to marry her."
His longtime fiancee, Yvonne Lamas, told CNN, "I looked around the room, and said 'Who?' That was just the way we played."
Let's do it, the chaplain said, and she left to get people to help make a dying wish into reality.
Family and hospital staff hurried to put a wedding together. One of the hospital's chaplains took Lamas to the courthouse to acquire a marriage license. When they arrived, the judge waived the typical 72-hour waiting period, Lamas said.
The director of the critical care unit – who never wears a coat and tie to work, but had that morning after going to see his daughter's Christmas program at school – shed his suit and gave it to Raul to wear for the ceremony, she said.
Cooks in the hospital's cafeteria baked a wedding cake, and relatives ran out to get a dress for Lamas.
"It was a perfect fit," said Angie Paiz, Raul's aunt.
After Hinojosa was admitted to a critical care unit in Amarillo, Texas, in late October, Lamas had spent every day at his side, balancing his needs with the needs of their children at home.
Hinojosa and Lamas had been together for 11 years. "He was very respectful, very romantic and always wanted to give me the world," Lamas said. "He knew how to put a smile on my face no matter the situation."
They have a son who is 9, and Lamas has three daughters from a previous marriage, but Hinojosa took them in as if they were his own.
"As a father figure he was very loving, very caring to my kids," Lamas said. "He gave them the world and was there for them when times were tough."
"He was a good person. He was a giving person," Paiz told CNN. He worked hard to provide for his family, picking up odd jobs even after he got sick because he couldn't keep a steady one.
Hinojosa proposed in 2007, but he and Lamas had been waiting to marry.
"He was determined to give me the best fairytale wedding," Lamas said. "He tried saving up, but within that time he ended up getting diagnosed with the leukemia."
Hospital bills stacked up, and it started to look as if their dreams would never be realized.
But within a couple of hours, thanks to the collective effort of family and the hospital staff, the wedding was ready.
Nursing staff lined up outside the hospital room, and Lamas was escorted down the makeshift aisle by her father.
"When I walked down the aisle and saw him in the suit, he just took my breath away," Lamas said. "He was so handsome. It was priceless."
Her father delicately placed Lamas' hand in Hinojosa's, and the chaplain choked back tears as she recounted their story. "When this illness was diagnosed," she said, "Yvonne promised she would never leave him. She would be with him. They would do this together."
With his wife-to-be on his left and his son on his right, Hinojosa recited his vows.
With their children, family and friends gathered around them, Hinojosa and Lamas were finally married.
Hinojosa, 33, died of leukemia on Saturday, just 36 hours later.
When she signed her husband's death certificate, it was the first time Lamas had signed her married name.


text:
Published on Immune system.
From the Greek septikos, which means something that causes putrefaction, and haima, which means blood.
This is a general infection in the blood. It can occur as a sequence of any serious infection in the body.
See the organ where the infection started and see also Infection.


text:
Source Information
About 1790 United States Federal Census
This database details those persons enumerated in the 1790 United States Federal Census. In addition, the names of those listed on the population schedule are linked to the actual images of the 1790 Federal Census, copied from the National Archives and Records Administration microfilm, M637, 12 rolls.
Enumerators of the 1790 census were asked to include the following categories in the census: name of head of household, number of free white males of sixteen years and older, number of free white males under sixteen years, number of free white females, number of all other free persons, number of slaves, and sometimes town or district of residence. The categories allowed Congress to determine persons residing in the United States for collection of taxes and the appropriation of seats in the House of Representatives. This first United States census schedules differs in format from later census material, as each enumerator was expected to make his own copies on whatever paper he could find. Unlike later census schedules an enumerator could arrange the records as he pleased. This database is certain to prove useful for those seeking early American ancestors.
The United States was the first country to call for a regularly held census. The Constitution required that a census of all "Persons...excluding Indians not taxed" be performed to determine the collection of taxes and the appropriation of seats in the House of Representatives. The first nine censuses from 1790-1870 were organized under the United States Federal Court system. Each district was assigned a U.S. marshal who hired other marshals to administer the census. Governors were responsible for enumeration in territories.
The jurisdiction of the original thirteen states canvassed an area of seventeen present states. Schedules survive for eleven of the thirteen original states: Connecticut, Maine (part of Massachusetts at the time), Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont. (Vermont became the fourteenth state early in 1791 and was included in the census schedules).
Enumerators were only required to make one copy of the census schedules to be held by the clerk of the district court in their respective area. In 1830, Congress passed a law requiring the return of all decennial censuses from 1790-1830. At this point it was discovered that many of the 1790 schedules had been lost or destroyed. Thus, we have about two-thirds of the original census from the time period. The 1790 census suffered district losses of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia. However, some of the schedules for these states have been re-created using tax lists and other records. Virginia was eventually reconstructed from tax lists as well as some counties from North Carolina and Maryland.
Taken from Chapter 5: Research in Census Records, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Loretto Dennis Szucs; edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).


text:
Sure, it's got history. And delicious meaty sandwiches. But, as tempting as it may be, don't stop at the surface of Pennsylvania. This Eastern state is home to some unique culture, from the electricity-free Dutch country to the burgeoning arts districts of Philadelphia, and a confident modern energy that promises to get under your skin. Delve into the past in Philadelphia's historical monuments, from the Liberty Bell to Ben Franklin everything, then experience the vibrant reinvigoration of its eclectic neighborhoods. Check out battlefields Gettysburg and Valley Forge, and let the quirky charm of multicultural Pittsburg surprise you past its steely reputation. Experience something entirely different in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, dotted with rustic farms, horse-drawn buggies, and not a single chain store. Boat and fish around the shores of Lake Erie, and ski the slopes of Poconos and Endless Mountains. Stop in Hershey for a tour of the famed chocolate theme park, and why not, have a couple cheesesteaks too. History never tasted this good—or felt this alive.
Regions in Pennsylvania
Allegheny County


text:
In January 2010, investment banker Goldman Sachs, along with General Electric and a high-powered Washington thinktank called the World Resources Institute (WRI), announced the launch of a new index measuring water-related risks facing companies and their investors.
In the words of their corporate news release: 'In many regions around the world, water scarcity from climate change and pollution is starting to impact a company's performance, yet few analysts account for water-related risks.'
Thirsty work: a man pours water from a stream into his paddy field. Excessive irrigation has caused groundwater levels in north India to drop dramatically. Anupam Nath / AP / Press Association Images
This new water index would 'draw on publicly available data regarding physical scarcity and water quality and overlay factors including the regulatory regime and social and reputational issues' in various regions of the world.
Business jargon aside, if you think this will be a useful tool for corporations, you'd be right. In fact, the risk-index might more accurately be called an 'opportunity-index' for water speculators and investors.
Next year the water privatization market worldwide is expected to reach $1 trillion. As Goldman Sachs puts it, 'There is no substitute for water. It is the only utility you ingest.' According to Maude Barlow, a leading Canadian critic of water privatization, 'The biggest water company of all is General Electric.'
By August 2011, Goldman Sachs, General Electric and WRI had not only found a name for their partnership – the Aqueduct Alliance – they had also developed the index into a water database and mapping tool, which can include the amount of infrastructure investment taking place in a given region.
'If you play it right,' says the advisor, 'the results of this impending water crisis can be very good'
Moreover, they had put an 'environmental' spin on the project, claiming that it will help corporations, governments and stakeholders become more aware of their 'water footprint' and thus make more 'sustainable' decisions.
That same month the original threesome – Goldman Sachs, General Electric and WRI – invited into the Aqueduct Alliance some new corporate partners: Coca-Cola, Talisman Energy, Dow Chemical, United Technologies and the financial/news conglomerate, Bloomberg LP.
The WRI's Kirsty Jenkinson told the Financial Times (FT): 'Companies see the need to get better visibility about water if they are going to have to access it for their business.' With the new water database, 'they can see if they are at risk of not getting the water they need, or coming into conflict with other users of that water'.
Presumably, the potential for 'conflict' is what attracted United Technologies to join the Aqueduct Alliance. UT is the world's 10th largest arms-producing company with sales of $11.1 billion in 2009.
Mired in controversy
Coca-Cola has handed over to the Alliance its own proprietary data on freshwater availability worldwide – data collected over years of research for its bottling enterprises. 'Water is the lifeblood of our business,' Coke spokesperson Joe Rozza told the FT. The Atlanta-based company has hundreds of bottling-franchises worldwide, many of them mired in controversy. In India and Latin America, Coca-Cola has regularly faced irate local communities who are losing their drinking and irrigation water to Coke's local bottlers.
In January this year, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that Coca-Cola is under fire for propping up Mswati III of Swaziland, one of Africa's most notorious dictators. Poverty is endemic, political parties are banned and activists are regularly imprisoned and tortured in the country.
Another Aqueduct Alliance partner is Talisman Energy, a Canadian natural gas company based in Calgary, Alberta. 'We are very excited to have been asked to become the oil and gas sector sponsor for the Aqueduct Alliance,' Talisman spokesperson Sandy Stash told Marketwire. 'Talisman aspires to a water management strategy that defines best practices for water withdrawal, reuse, disposal and conservation in our North American shale gas operations.'
Just weeks earlier, in July 2011, the government of British Columbia (BC) awarded Talisman a licence to divert up to 10,000 cubic metres of water per day from the province's major hydroelectric reservoir for the next 20 years. Talisman uses the water to 'frack' for shale gas in northeastern BC. The company has also secured access to 6,200 square kilometres of shale gas deposits along Quebec's St Lawrence River.
$1 trillion – The value that the global water privatization market is expected to reach next year.
The Aqueduct Alliance intends to generate databases and water-maps with 'an unprecedented level of detail and resolution', including advanced hydrological data and 'geographically specific indicators that capture the social, economic and governance factors that affect companies and economies'. The databases will include up-to-date regional news coverage on water issues.
By September 2011, the Aqueduct Alliance had developed a prototype database/map covering the Yellow River Basin in northern China. Water shortages in China are already so severe that more than half its cities are facing restrictions on water use.
In 2013 the Alliance intends to release four additional database/maps on river basins of 'high priority', including the 2,300-kilometre long Colorado River in the US which has experienced years of drought; the Orange-Sengu River in Africa which extends across Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa; the Yangtze River in China, where 10 million people were displaced by the Three Gorges Dam; and the Murray Darling River in Australia.
All are regions where water scarcity is enticing speculators to secure water-rights in a 'buy-and-hold' strategy. Their model is based on recent events in Australia.
In a short-sighted cash grab, the Australian government in the 1990s introduced a water market for the Murray Darling River Basin – one of the longest river systems in the world and the heart of Australia's agricultural production. But in 2001 a major drought struck the Basin and within a few years the federal government in Canberra was forced to start buying back water from private owners.
'Water is the lifeblood of our business,' Coke spokesperson Joe Rozza told the FT
The price shot up. By 2009, so many speculators had targeted the Basin that some $3 billion in water-rights were bought and sold in that year alone. The government was forced to compete with international speculators, including giant hedge-funds.
By September 2010, the Australian government had spent at least $1.4 billion buying back water-rights. Although the drought eased that same year, the fact that the Aqueduct Alliance is now focusing on the Murray Darling Basin means that the risks and opportunities there are still 'high priority'.
As one hedge-fund advisor quipped, an emerging worldwide water crisis is creating 'serious profit opportunities for those in the know'. The Aqueduct Alliance database/ maps will show where those opportunities are located. Another 15 regions across the world will be analyzed once the Alliance has created its first four database/maps.
'If you play it right,' says the advisor, 'the results of this impending water crisis can be very good.'
Joyce Nelson is an award-winning freelance writer/ researcher and the author of five books.
Source: New Internationalist Issue 452


text:
The latest generation of Arduino hardware has been released. The Arduino Duemilanove (2009 in Italian) has the same form factor as previous generations. The specs are essentially identical to the Diecimila, but there have been a few changes to the hardware. The power source is no longer chosen using a jumper. A MOSFET and dual OPAMP have been added to the board to automatically selected between USB power and the external plug. Automatic hardware resets are optional now. Next to the USB port are two solder pads labeled RESET-EN. Cut the trace between them to kill the reset. If you ever want it back, just bridge the pads. The hardware was updated to correspond with the release of Arduino cofounder [Massimo Banzi]'s new book.
Arduino Duemilanove
7 Comments
- by: Eliot


text:
FCAT Home > References > Strategies > Vocabulary > Semantic Feature Analysis Site Map
Semantic Feature Analysis
This strategy effectively teaches vocabulary by activating prior knowledge and by classifying the new words by their features using a matrix.
- The teacher selects a list of words that have similarities, and places them on the matrix in the left-hand column.
- The teacher then writes features associated with these words across the top of the matrix, or asks the students to supply the features associated with these words.
- The students are to complete the matrix by placing either a check, if the word has the feature, or a zero if it does not have the feature. Accept all predictions.
- Once the matrix is complete and the students have discussed the reasons for their answers, the students should then read the assigned passage.
- Review matrix for any necessary changes.
Anders, P., & Bos, C. (1986). Semantic feature analysis: An interactive strategy for vocabulary development and text comprehension. Journal of Reading, 29(7), 610–616.
FCAT Home > References > Strategies > Vocabulary > Semantic Feature Analysis Site Map
4th Grade Reading Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida ©2013.


text:
We've featured IR webcams before, but this is Fuji FinePix 2300 still camera that has been modified to take IR photos. The site has a pretty thorough walk through of the disassembly and has all of the warnings you'd expect. Once the IR filter is removed (or broken in this case) it is replaced by at least two layers of material cut from exposed 35mm negatives. From the sample pictures it looks like it works well. I kinda wish I had been an early adopter so I'd have a worthless camera laying around right now to tear open.
[thanks Captain seduction]


text:
Biometrics – technology that can recognise individuals based on physical and behavioural traits such as their faces, voices or fingerprints – are becoming increasingly important to combat financial fraud and security threats. This is because traditional approaches, such as those based on PIN numbers or passwords, are proving too easily compromised. For example, Barclays has introduced TouchID, whereby customers can log onto internet banking using fingerprint scanners on mobile phones.
However, this is not foolproof either – it is possible to forge such biometrics. Fingers can after all be chopped off and placed by impostors to gain fraudulent access. It has also been shown that prints lifted from glass using cellophane tape can be used with gelatine to create fake prints. So there is a real need to come up with more advanced biometrics that are difficult or impossible to forge. And a promising alternative is the brain.
Emerging biometric technology based on the electrical activity of the brain have indeed shown potential to be fraud resistant. Over the years, a number of research studies have found that "brainprints" (readings of how the brain reacts to certain words or tasks) are unique to individuals as each person's brain is wired to think differently. In fact, the brain can be used to identify someone from a pool of 102 users with more than 98% accuracy at the moment, which is very close to that of fingerprints (99.8% accuracy).
More recently, this has been confirmed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity by tracking changes in blood flow. A study using fMRI data from the Human Connectome Project was able to recognise individuals with up to 99% accuracy when performing certain mental tasks such as relaxing, listening to a story, computing maths, looking at emotional faces or imagining moving parts of their body.
However, the cost and difficulty of using fMRI (you have to lie very still in the scanner for a fairly long time) means it is clearly not practical for everyday biometric authentication. For that reason, researchers have instead looked at electroencephalography (EEG), which uses electrodes to track and record brain-wave patterns. But this is also cumbersome – who would be willing to wear a cap of gel-based electrodes just to log in to their computer? Hence, the technology has remained in the realm of science fiction for some time.
Promising alternatives
Recently, technological advances in recording EEG from the ear using electrodes placed on the surface of standard earphones have provided a solution – no gel needed. It is not easy though – EEG is very "noisy" since the brain is always actively processing different information. But advanced signal-processing approaches have recently been able to reduce the noisy components, albeit this typically requires powerful computing. This is, however, becoming less of a problem now that mobile-phone processing power is growing rapidly – it should in theory be possible to perform all the required processing on a smart phone.
So why aren't brainprints everywhere already? One downside is that it can't be used by twins – they have near-identical EEG patterns. But the main problem is the lack of stability of brainprints over time.
It seems that it is not enough to just have an EEG done once – occasional re-enrolment (say, monthly) is necessary. This is because the brain connections exhibit plastic behaviour (they change with experience) and thought processes in the brain change over time. However, in ongoing work at the University of Kent, we have shown that specific tones (which can be played using earphones) can be used to minimise these changes. It is not yet clear exactly how these tones affect the brain but we speculate that they may allow the brain to calm down, allowing more focused activity.
Two-factor authentication is now a norm for many banking transactions, for example using a password and an additional code sent to the phone. Soon, banks in New York may have to comply with multi-factor authentication protocol proposed by the New York State Department of Financial Services, whereby at least three authentication mechanisms are used for enhanced security by personnel accessing internal systems with privileged access or to support functions including remote access.
While fingerprints and voice recognition are possibilities, thought-based biometric technology is more apt to be used as an add-on to meet this new cybersecurity regulation. The brain biometric template could even be updated for a different mental activity should there be a security breach on the stored template (unlike a fingerprint biometric which remains for life and cannot be replaced once compromised).
Brainprints can also be used to generate passwords that can replace conventional alphanumeric passwords or PINs in ATM machines to withdraw cash. For example, rather than keying in the PIN, one would connect earphones and be shown a series of PIN numbers on the ATM screen. Brain patterns would change when the correct PIN number showed up – activating the transaction. By doing so, one does not have to worry about others looking over the shoulder to steal the PIN. Moreover, under coerced situations, brainprints will not work due to the stress – making them even more fraud resistant.
Given that it is difficult to copy another person's exact thought process, the technology is certainly advantageous. Considering the advancement in the technology, we will likely see uptake of biometric applications based on brainprints soon – especially as part of multi-factor system for enhanced authentication. So don't be surprised to see EEG earphones appearing in your post from the bank shortly.
- Palaniappan Ramaswamy, Reader in Signal Analysis, University of Kent
- This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


text:
The Cave Cities of Cappadocia
Turkish tunnels.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:There's a reason why St. Basil the Great, his younger brother St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus settled in Cappadocia, carved from living rock, in the fourth century. The special tufa stone of the moonlike lava valleys in this region of Turkey is soft and easy to carve, but hardens when it comes into contact with air.


text:
350 OR BUSTFor the first time in human history, in May 2013 concentrations of CO2 rose above 400 ppm. That means in the geological blink of an eye, we've dumped more CO2 into the atmosphere than has built up naturally over the past 800,000 years. A foreboding fact indeed for the future of our climate, our planet and its inhabitants — plant, animal or human. Prominent climate researchers have long warned that we must reduce the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, or CO2, to 350 parts per million (ppm) or below in order to stabilize climate change and avoid global catastrophe. The Center for Biological Diversity, along with groups such as 350.org, is advocating strongly for this necessary standard. Rajendra Pachauri, the United Nations' principal climate scientist and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has personally endorsed a 350 ppm target: "What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target." And a United Nations project to quantify the financial costs of climate change on nature concluded that current climate targets just aren't enough to save the world's coral reefs. Alex Rogers of London's Institute of Zoology declared that current levels of CO2 are already causing damage to reefs, and stabilizing atmospheric CO2 at anything above about 350 ppm will lead to further destruction. Twenty top climate scientists issued an open letter to President Barack Obama and Congress to "call attention to the large difference between what U.S. politics now seems capable of enacting [targeting reduction to 450 ppm] and what scientists understand is necessary to prevent climatic disruption and protect the human future. . . . We and many others are of the view that these objectives are inadequate to sustain the integrity of global climate and to hold the risk of ruinous climatic change to an acceptably low level." THE GLOBAL CARBON PROBLEMWhile CO2 isn't the only global warming pollutant we need to control, it's the number-one contributor to climate change. 350: THE CRITICAL THRESHOLDSeveral lines of evidence show that allowing greenhouse gas levels to remain above 350 ppm for a sustained period of time will lead to dangerously acidic oceans, runaway global warming, and melting of the polar ice caps. Such a climate would be well outside anything experienced in the history of the human species, and would carry with it irreversible cascades of species extinctions and significant dangers for human civilization. REDUCING CO2 NOWAlong with Bill McKibben's group 350.org, the Center has called for an immediate reduction of atmospheric CO2, with the goal of an overall concentration of 350 ppm or less to be achieved as quickly as possible. To accomplish that, we support the rapid phasing out of all coal-fired power plants, the highest technologically feasible vehicle-mileage standards, and a moratorium on Arctic oil and gas drilling, among other critical measures. Will we have the political will to get there?There's no doubt that 350 is an ambitious goal, but failing to get to there isn't a viable option. To date, proposed bills in the U.S. Congress have fallen far short of the ppm goal needed to stave off global catastrophe from climate change. At the Center, we've been working hard to get the 350 message out. While we advocate for new legislation and international agreements that would help us reach the 350 ppm target, we're busy using existing environmental laws, like the Clean Air Act, to help curb global warming pollution now. The Clean Air Act has dramatically reduced air pollution over the past four decades, but is currently under attack in Congress. The Center's Clean Air Cities campaign seeks to safeguard this critical protection and urge the Obama administration to use the Clean Air Act ambitiously and urgently. But we need your help. To learn more about the Center's Clean Air Cities Campaign, please click here. |
Photo of Cadillac Ranch © Jeanne Miller, courtesy of 350.org | HOME / DONATE NOW / SIGN UP FOR E-NETWORK / CONTACT US / PHOTO USE / |


text:
The Things We Wrote About: The Author of Redeployment on Military Conflict, the Craft of Fiction, and Coming Home
By Michael LokessonMay 26, 2014
THREE YEARS AGO in the pages of Granta, Phil Klay's short story "Redeployment" kick-started the recent gold rush of fiction about the Iraq War with a sentence remarkable for its brutal simplicity: "We shot dogs." Since that time we have seen three remarkable novels that begin to give that decade-long conflict its due: Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds, David Abrams' Fobbit, and Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Now Phil Klay, a former Marine Corps captain and Iraq War veteran, is taking center stage with his new collection of stories, Redeployment.
Ranging across a panoply of perspectives — from a mortuary affairs soldier to a law student to a chaplain — both in Iraq and on the home front, the collection takes a measure of the conflict in a way that no fiction has yet dared. In crisp prose, the stories wrestle with the knotty moralities and absurdities of war: a soldier claiming credit for a comrade's kill in "After Action Report;" a foreign service officer's darkly humorous attempt to lead a provincial reconstruction team; a chaplain's suspicion that the Marines in his battalion may be committing war crimes. The book's publication has been met with near unanimous praise from magazines and newspapers across the country. George Packer in The New Yorker summed up the critical response well when he proclaimed the collection "the best literary work thus far written by a veteran of America's recent wars."
Long a fixture in the veterans' writing community, Klay has the self-assured, thoughtful, and unpretentious demeanor of a man comfortable in his own skin, and one can't help but wonder if his time in the Middle East burned away any writerly self-consciousness. A 2005 alumnus of Dartmouth, he was commissioned into the Marine Corps after graduation and served a tour of duty in Iraq in 2007 as a public affairs officer, a position that allowed him access to a wide spectrum of soldiers working different jobs in support of the war effort. He left the service in 2009 and turned to fiction, studying under Colum McCann and others at Hunter's MFA program. After the publication of his acclaimed story "Redeployment" in Granta, he inked a book deal with Penguin and has spent the spring crisscrossing the country on book tour.
Michael Lokesson: In the collection, all stories are written in the first person, but from multiple points of view, ranging from a foreign service officer to an infantryman to an artilleryman to a chaplain. What prompted that choice, and had that been your intention from the start? And why did you choose to limit yourself solely to Iraq and not Afghanistan?
Phil Klay: I was originally working on a novel alongside the stories, but I realized very quickly that the best way to achieve what I wanted was with a multitude of perspectives. It was important to me to motion toward the breadth and complexity of war experience and what that might mean for people when they got home. If I was talking about death and killing, for example, it wasn't enough for me to do it from the perspective of someone who has done it up close, like the narrator of the first story; I also needed to talk about what it means for the artilleryman who never sees those his unit killed, or for the Marine who takes credit for his friend's kill, or for the Mortuary Affairs specialist dealing with the bodies, and so on.
Also, with war fiction in particular there's always this troubling issue of authority, especially when you've got war fiction written by a guy like me who is supposed to know what he's talking about by virtue of experience. Except none of these narrators are me. And not all of these narrators would necessarily get along or agree with each other. Experience and knowledge are tricky things. I wanted to invite the reader in to think about the spaces between these guys, and their interpretations of what they've been through.
I spent years trying to educate myself enough about Iraq to be able to say something worth saying. Plus, Afghanistan is, as you know, a very different war. So it would have been a very different book if I had served in both conflicts.
Explain your research process a little more. Was it conducted primarily through memoirs, articles, interviews? And did you seek out folks who had held the roles you write from (chaplain, FSO, etc.) during or after the writing process to ensure you got the details right?
I read everything I could get my hands on. Memoirs, nonfiction accounts, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction reports, journalism. I watched documentaries and YouTube videos. I talked to other veterans, or contractors, or folks who'd been over there, or just anybody who might have any knowledge I could use, war-related or otherwise. So yes, I certainly sought out folks who might know something useful. But I also read a lot of fiction. The Good Soldier Svejk, The Diary of a Country Priest, Beer In The Snooker Club, and so on. Anything that could give me a richer sense of my subject.
Recently there has been a lot written about how war fiction requires a longer gestation time, which accounts for the lack of fiction about the conflict in the Middle East up until about two years ago. You were on the leading edge of that wave when you published "Redeployment" in Granta in 2011. But interestingly, nearly all the war fiction written by soldiers has been from those who served in Iraq post-2005, and very little has come out about the war in Afghanistan. Why do you think soldiers in the wars' first years preferred the memoir to document their experience? And what prompted you to tackle the war in fiction, rather than through a conventional memoir?
Well, there's a fantastic novel coming out next year called The War of the Encyclopedists that was co-written by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite. Gavin served in Baghdad from 2004-2005, so you'll get a very different perspective of the war there. Elliot Ackerman has a novel called Green on Blue coming out with Scribner. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. And Fire and Forget had authors who'd served in Iraq early on, and in Afghanistan early on.
My most pressing questions weren't about what I'd been through. I traveled a decent amount through Anbar while I was in Iraq, and hung out with a lot of different types of Marines, and everybody's war was so different. I wanted to get inside those heads and break apart the notions of Iraq I'd come back with, so that I could figure out something a bit more honest.
Counter-insurgency, as experienced in Iraq, is a far different form of warfare than what American soldiers faced during much of the last century. The enemy often blends in with the population. Danger can be invisible up until the moment it is upon you. Does asymmetric warfare present special challenges for writers looking to dramatize the experience in fiction?
It depends on what you're looking to dramatize. There are no large-scale battles, for sure. But I never had much interest in dramatizing large-scale battles anyway. And fiction is ideal, I think, for trying to get at the unique stresses of counter-insurgency. The difficulty of telling civilian from insurgent, the threat of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] on the road, the bizarre feeling of returning to American society when you get back — you need to get inside people's heads to really get at that.
You mention the bizarre feeling of getting back. When you left the Marine Corps in 2009 you went straight into the MFA program at Hunter. Had you written much while you were in the Corps? Why did you decide to go for an MFA after you got out, and what was it like entering into the workshop environment after the military?
I tried to write while I was in the Corps, even in Iraq, which didn't really work. Most of the stuff I wrote overseas was terrible, terrible stuff. It was deeply comforting to me to learn that Anthony Powell stopped writing during WWII. That felt like I had an excuse. But I did write the first couple drafts of the first story in the book while I was in the Corps. I began when I was a few months back from Iraq, and the first sentence I wrote was the first sentence of the book, "We shot dogs."
As for going to a workshop — I went because I wanted to learn my craft. And Hunter had what, to me, seemed like the best program I could possibly hope for. It was very small, you got to study with great authors — I studied with Colum McCann, Peter Carey, Nathan Englander, Claire Messud, and Patrick McGrath, all of whose work I greatly admire. And the students I talked to tended to be a little older, a little more serious when they talked about writing. I don't know what I expected going in, but I definitely owe a lot, as a writer, to the program. Just being around other excellent writers and reading and editing their work, it pushes you forward. And I got readers — for example, Lauren Holmes, an excellent writer who just had stories in Guernica and Granta, gave me comments on every story in this collection. I couldn't have progressed as a writer without good readers.
It was a change from the military, though, that's for sure. I remember early on, Bill Cheng, the author of Southern Cross the Dog and then a fellow student, taking me to lunch and explaining that maybe I should tone down my style of discussion — I was used to the rather more direct Marine Corps style of making a point.
Had you always intended to write a collection of Iraq War stories (you mentioned earlier that at first you were working concurrently on a novel)? Or did the publication of "Redeployment" in Granta spur you in that direction?And did you ever find yourself wanting to write fiction that had nothing to do with the war, the military, or veterans?
The stories became my focus very early on, well before the publication of "Redeployment" in Granta. For what I wanted to say about Iraq, short stories were the ideal form. It was important to me to have those different perspectives placed alongside one another. That felt like a better way to get at Iraq than one unified narrative. Also, it was just fascinating to me: What was it like to be a chaplain, a psychological operations specialist, an artilleryman who never sees his target?
I've written fiction that has nothing to do with the military, and I don't expect to write about the military my whole life. When I came back from Iraq, and then when I got out of the Corps, thinking my way through what Iraq was became vital for me. So that's what I wrote about.
Over the past several years, there has been much debate within the veterans' community over the portrayal of veterans as irrevocably scarred by war — PTSD, unemployment, alienation, family problems. While a majority of veterans make the transition back into the civilian world successfully, there is a definite tendency by journalists and authors to focus on those who do not. Many of the stories in Redeployment focus honestly on the aftermath of war, while avoiding the "damaged veteran" trope. How does one walk that fine line of acknowledging trauma without painting the whole community with too broad a brush?
Well, there's that scene in one of the stories, "War Stories," where I have the civilian interviewing Jenks keep insisting he has PTSD, despite his denials. When you come home, you come home to all the preconceived notions people have about you. There's also the adjutant who comes home and all the folks in law school think he was some sort of badass, when in fact he had a desk job. For both of those characters, the war has left its mark on them. But it's considerably more complicated than the simple notion of war-equals-trauma. Depending on the character, physical or psychological trauma may be a part of the experience, but it's not the key to understanding everything about war, or even everything about a character who has gone through something awful. So it's less about walking a fine line, and more about being honest to the richness of your characters' experiences.
You mention the adjutant who worked a desk job and was then perceived at law school as a badass who went off to war. Veterans from the last decade's wars are valorized in a way that is unique in American history: so few of the general population served that those who did are put on a pedestal, both by the public and often by themselves. I have a feeling that you are like many veteran writers who view themselves less as soldiers who write than writers who served. Do you ever worry that the critiques of your own writing are affected by this valorization phenomenon? And do you think veteran writers today may have more trouble breaking free of their reputation as soldier-writers than veteran writers in the past (Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, James Salter, etc.)?
It's not really something I'm worried about. At the end of the day, the writing has to justify itself, regardless of who wrote it. As readers, we sometimes like a backstory that lends an air of authenticity to the story, but if as a writer you assume you've got that authenticity simply as a function of who you are and where you've been, then the writing probably won't hold up.
We're just starting to see the literary output from veteran writers. The war gave us a subject that is vital to us. It's possible some may write about war their whole careers; the topic is certainly big enough for that. Others may go on to write about different subjects. Roy Scranton, an Iraq veteran who co-edited Fire and Forget, just had an essay he wrote on climate change selected for Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014.
Now that the collection has been out a couple months, have you gotten feedback from non-writer veterans on your depiction of the Iraq War and its aftermath for the soldiers who served?
Yes. And so far, I've had a very positive reception. A lot of the vets I've talked to have been glad I'm trying to engage people in thinking about the war. It's very strange to come home from overseas to a country that isn't really paying attention.
I'm presuming a novel is next. Will it too be about the recent wars, or are you going in a completely different direction?
I'm working on something now. We'll see what it becomes.
LARB Contributor
Michael Lokesson has written for The New York Times, National Geographic, Time, The Daily Beast, Salon, and many others. A former Navy officer, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He is at work on a (non-war) novel.
LARB Staff Recommendations
War and Insurgency
IT'S EASY to understand why David Bellos and his publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, chose to bring out the French author Daniel Anselme's debut...
Passive Aggression: Recent War Novels
The state of the American war novel
Did you know LARB is a reader-supported nonprofit?
LARB publishes daily without a paywall as part of our mission to make rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts freely accessible to the public. Help us continue this work with your tax-deductible donation today!


text:
avast! 5.0 is a free antivirus program available for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. It is a fairly full featured virus scanner similar to AVG free. Some of its key features are:
- Silent/Gaming Mode
- Anti-rootkit protection
- Automatic updates
- Boot time scanning (32 bit only)
- Scheduled scanning
- Wake up for scan (wakes up Windows from hibernate or sleep to perform scheduled scan)
Install avast! in Windows
Before you can begin installing avast! Antivirus you need to download the installation file from the avast! website. Once the download is complete, double click on the setup_av_free.exe file to start the installation.
On the first screen, choose the installation language and click Next.
The second screen asks if you want to participate in the avast! community. Make your choice and click Next. (Note: for this tutorial, I am doing a standard installation, not custom.)
The installer will now create a system restore point in case something goes wrong during the installation. Just wait and let this step finish.
After the restore point has been completed, the actual installation of files will begin.
After the installer is done doing its thing it will let you know. Click Finish.
Running avast!
The first time you run avast!, it will remind you to register. If you want to use the program for more than 30 days, then you'll need to do this. Just click on Register now.
At this point avast! will offer the option to upgrade to their paid version. Just click on Register to register your free version.
Then, just fill out the registration form and click on Register for free license.
Once the registration is complete, click OK in the thank you box.
The registration is now complete and you can scan your system if you choose.
Basic virus scanning
Perhaps one of the coolest features of avast! Antivirus is the screensaver virus scanning. You simply go into Windows' screen saver settings and choose avast! antivirus from the list of screen savers. Then, when you are away from your computer and the screen saver activates, avast! will scan the system for virus infections.
I really like this feature as opposed to scheduled virus scanning. It ensures that your system gets scanned when you aren't using it rather than adhering to a strict schedule that may interrupt your productive use of your computer.
I wish you happy and safe computing.


text:
Franklin enjoys symbiotic relationship with AT hikers
For years, Appalachian Trail thru-hikers have been stopping in Franklin for supplies, rest, and Internet access, but last week the town solidified its place as a trail destination. Mayor Joe Collins signed a proclamation accepting the town's designation as an Appalachian Trail Community at the invitation of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy at a celebration event in the town hall.
"It's such a natural fit. We've always appreciated the hikers and hopefully this will allow us to broaden our relationship with them. Hikers are great people," Collins said.
The Appalachian Trail passes 11 miles from Franklin at its closest point near Winding Stair Gap. Franklin's position 100 miles from the trail's southern starting point makes it a natural stop for hikers making the 2,170-mile trip from Georgia to Maine.
Appalachian Trail Conservancy Board Chairman Robert Almand described the magic feeling of discovering the AT as he welcomed Franklin into the greater community of the trail at the ceremony last week (April 23). Almand told the story of his first encounter with the trail in the '80s while picking up trash near Moody Gap on Earth Day.
"I noticed the AT ran through there, and I went down the trail a little ways to explore and kept seeing those white blazes," Almand said. "I realized I could walk all the way to Maine if I kept going."
The Appalachian Trail is one of America's true pilgrimage routes, stretching nearly the length of the East Coast and attracting some 2,000 thru-hikers each year.
Related Items
Franklin became the first location in the South to receive the ATC's designation as an official trail community. The effort was driven by the Nantahala Hiking Club — whose volunteers maintain the 80 miles of the AT between Bly Gap and the Nantahala Outdoor Center — the Franklin Main Street program, and by local businessman Ronnie Haven.
The trail has been both a passion and a resource for Haven, who owns and operates a group of motels between Franklin and Georgia.
"At age 16, I thought I could walk to Maine and back before school started, but I didn't make it but to Pearisburg, Virginia," Haven said.
Haven was one of the first Franklin-based business people to embrace the trail hikers as customers. His hotels are known as a stopping point, and Franklin's trail celebration "April Fools Trail Days" owes its genesis to the hiker bash Haven has hosted at the Sapphire Inn for the past six years.
Haven's bash includes trail advice from legends, music, and demonstrations of mountain cultural activities, like five-string banjo picking and clogging. Haven said the new ATC designation would allow the town to take on the role as cultural ambassadors of the Western North Carolina high country.
"There's people who come here from all over the world, and some of them never heard tell of some of the things like we do," Haven said.
The Appalachian Trail Community designation is a new program designed to promote the economic benefits of the trail to nearby communities and to foster local stewardship of the trail. In order to qualify, communities must meet two of four requirements. Franklin met all four by creating a trail advisory committee, hosting an annual trail event, initiating an AT-focused education program through the school and library systems, and getting the county planning department to commit to consider the trail in its land use plans.
Nantahala Hiking Club President Bill Van Horn hailed the effort as confirmation of Franklin's commitment to the AT motto "Join the Journey."
"Today Franklin has truly joined the journey," Van Horn said.
Van Horn spearheaded the trail advisory committee, which spent the past year meeting to plan local efforts around education and trail stewardship. Along the way, the committee conducted an informal survey of thru-hikers. The survey found that, on average, thru-hikers stay 1.4 nights in Franklin and spend $124 during their stay.
Both the town of Franklin and Macon County have shown strong support over the past year for becoming an official trail community, but it's the Nantahala Hiking Club and its volunteers that have undertaken the hard work of maintaining the AT over the years.
Don O'Neil, the NHC trail manager, is one of the many volunteers who maintain the 47 miles of trail that run through Macon County. For O'Neill, who hiked the AT in sections between 1981 and 1991, the motivation to maintain the trail is a sign of gratitude for the experience it provided him.
"I'm just giving back what I got out of the trail," he said.
As the newest Appalachian Trail Community, Franklin is doing the same.


text:
Offering a bribe is an inducement to the party offered to accept it. If the party refused, then you are in a helluvalot more trouble than you were before. Try to remember why you offered the bribe in the first place. Is it to get the NASA contract when you do not even look at the moon? Is it to send your son into Harvard when he is not even a Wikipedian? Or is it to allow the cop to have a drink instead of writing you a ticket? Want to get into Congress without really campaigning? Or you are simply corrupted? Well, then welcome to the club. You are not the only one in fact you will be the odd one out if you do not use bribes.
Do Not Confuse With Bride[edit | edit source]
Bribing means you offer something to rob someone else of a chance from getting it. For example, you do not want your neighbours' kids to enter Harvard so you bribe the Dean to strike their names out. You have to leave a tip to make him wear his glasses so he does not accidentally strike out your son's name which you already paid a bigger bribe for earlier.
Your son may in turn bribe the Dean with a higher amount to make sure he is recommended to Baywatch Life Guard School instead. Thus you must understand that bribing is not a static affair. It is more like gambling, only worse as it is not allowed in the casino.
Getting sex by paying someone is not a bribe. It is called prostitution. Paying a much higher price is also not it. It means you are in Tokyo. Paying for a bride is also not it. That is done by a mail-order-bride syndicate. Bribing girls for sex is thus unnecessary unless you are a jerk and she is desperate for cash. But then that is prostitution which is legal depending on what currency you are using. Many prostitutes prefer jewels, cars, re-loadable cards, plastic surgery services, or spa services such as massages, manicures or pedicures as currency.
If you caught your swimming coach trying to touch you in places that is giving you pleasure instead of pain, then you may request for a bribe. If he refused then tell him its an extortion not amounting to blackmail. If he still refuse to admit it, then tell him its his turn to pay back for the last date that you had with him but he forgot his wallet.
If you are still confused, call on your local congressman, school principal or local police chief for more precise definitions. Wikipedia is the last place to look because they live on donations and free beer. If you need a live demonstration, ask an attorney.
Bribery and Sex[edit | edit source]
Since your mind is dirty, you might ask, "Has bribes got anything to do with sex?". The answer is "If you happen to be offering sex as a form of bribe". Sex, like money, a door gift, loyalty cards, smiling cab-drivers or a faster than usual courier service is another form or medium that a bribe may take. Devout and religious individuals may not be tempted by money or politics nor sex, but then 'offered sex with a surprise gift' may arouse their curiosity that might just the straw that breaks the camel's back. Therefore if your target does not accept your offers, think laterally. You will think of something.
Everyone Bribes Everyone[edit | edit source]
- That smart kid who always gets A's on all his tests bribes the local bully to leave him alone.
- Richard Nixon tried to do that to All The President's Men but when he couldn't come up with the money they released Watergate.
- Brad Pitt offered a bribe to Angelina Jolie to give him babies but instead she extorted so much from him that they got twins. Plus couple of orphans.
- Your local MP (member of parliament) to the party leadership to get his name on the ballot paper.
- Your local MP for asking you to vote for him and when you asked what is he standing for, he slipped you a ten.
- Your local MP after been elected, when you asked him what he is doing about the low water pressure in your area, he slipped you a twenty.
- That drunk guy in the nightclub bribed the bouncer at the door of the local nightclub to let him in when he was already drunk.
- You yourself when you pay double to your son to erase all memory he has of you flirting with your secretary when he dropped by the office to get his earlier bribes.
Some history of Bribery[edit | edit source]
Bribery probably, just probably started when the dinosaurs wanted a good planet to step on. They paid to some angels to forgo quality assurance and checks for leaking that would cost them higher.
During the Exodus, those who were waiting for Moses bribed Aaron to allow them to make their Golden Calf so that they got richer for the front seats to the view. While in front of the Pilate, Jesus could not counter the huge bribe given by the plaintiffs to the judge and he was sentenced 3 crucifixions for the price of one. The Saudi regime in recent times used oil instead to get Lawrence of Arabia to send tanks and beauty models.
There are attempts to cloud organised bribes with terms and difficult to grasp covers such as Act of Congress, CNN, The Apprentice. You have weapons of mass destructions in your country, the United Nations, and Uncyclopedia.
Today[edit | edit source]
Bribery Among Countries[edit | edit source]
America is actually certified 100% clean as it is ranked no.1 on the World Corruption Index. At the bottom is Zimbabwe, arranged alphabetically. One of the most famous bribery scandal on a government to government level is carried out between Somalia and China. When the bribe was not accepted in Chinese Yuan, the Chinese sent their aircraft carrier instead.
The European Union was formed very quickly due to the lubricating effect of bribes paid in Pound Sterlings, German Marks, French Francs, Old Guilders and Pirate skulls. In return they received useless Euros.
Bribes and Human Progress[edit | edit source]
Bribing is important that it is taught in Masters of Business Administration (MBA) under the topic of How to Become Successful Without Really Trying. Law is another important subject that plays a crucial part in determining the amount of bribes, and how much tax to pay for all those bribes accepted to the Inland Revenue. Make sure when you are filing in your tax returns to insist on a recent Bribe Tax Reduction Scheme. The following are famous bribes to get these people to where they are today:
- El Salvador and other Latin American governments in getting Hollywood to make 2012 to get a lot of tourists before 2012.
- Michael Jackson to Oprah Winfrey to mention his name in outrageous scandal to make him an all-time legacy.
- Queen Elizabeth to Guy Fawkes to burn down the Old Bailey so that they make it a huge Hollywood success.
- Madonna to Christina Aguilera to kiss her to keep her career alive and sell more records.
- Mother Theresa's convent on getting all religious orders be they Hindus, Christians, Muslims or Atheists to revere her during her funeral procession.
- Barrack Obama on getting Hilary Clinton to declare defeat when she was actually ahead in the polls.
- Hilary Clinton when she became the Secretary of State without been ahead in the polls.
- Exxon Mobil on getting terrorists to blow up more oil wells to bring up the price of oil.
- Exxon Mobil on getting Wall Street to hedge funds to earn a windfall when the price of oil crashed.


text:
How do I become an emancipated minor?
How do I object to an effort by the support collection unit to suspend my driver's license?
Where can I find a simple, easy to understand guide to Family Court?
How do I object to a final support order issued by a support magistrate?
How do I appeal a final order issued by a judge?
How do I obtain a copy of electronically or digitally recorded proceedings?
How do I enter into a stipulated settlement for child support?
2019 Child Support Standards Act chart
What is the New York State Child Support Enforcement Program and how does it work?
Emancipation of Juveniles in New York State
There is NO official court process in New York State for a youth to be declared "emancipated". Unlike some other states, New York does not issue so-called "emancipation orders." A determination of emancipation is "ancillary" to some other proceeding. That means that as part of another proceeding a finding may be made that a youth is emancipated, but only with regards to that particular proceeding. For example, the filing of a support petition in Family Court may result in an order declaring a youth to be emancipated, but only with respect to a party's obligation to support the youth.
Support Obligation:
Children are deemed "emancipated" and parents no longer have an obligation to support them if children become economically independent of parents through employment, entry into military service, or marriage, and may also be deemed constructively emancipated if, without cause, they withdraw from parental control and supervision.
Under the "withdrawal from parental control doctrine," a child who is not financially self-sufficient may nevertheless be deemed emancipated so as to relieve the parents of their support obligation if he or she abandons the parental home without sufficient cause and refuses to comply with reasonable parental demands.
Where a child leaves home for good cause or with approval of the custodial parent, a child retains his/her right to support from their parent.
School Registration:
It is NOT necessary to have a court-appointed legal guardian for an "emancipated" youth to enroll in a school district different from that of the natural parent. Often Schools or agencies request copies of "emancipation papers." What they may be asking for is an affidavit or other sworn or verified document which sets forth the reasons the youth believes she/he is an emancipated minor. Such documentation is NOT provided by a court.
Important Ages to Remember:
1. Under 21: Parents are liable for support, subject to the child's obeying reasonable rules and regulations of the household.
2. Under 18: Parents are subject to Family Court jurisdiction for neglecting the child's support needs or for abusing the child.
3. Under 18: The child is subject to Family Court jurisdiction as a Person In Need of Supervision if she/he fails to obey the reasonable rules and regulations of the household, such as by running away or being otherwise incorrigible.
For answers to specific questions regarding your rights and/or obligations as an "emancipated" minor, or his/her parent, you should consult your lawyer.
Objection to Driver's License Suspension
Please be advised of the following procedures regarding objections to driver's license suspensions:
1) Once you have received notification from the Erie County Support Collection Unit that an action has been commenced seeking to suspend your driver's license, a written challenge may be filed with the Erie County Support Collection Unit, 95 Franklin Street, Buffalo, New York 14202.
2) If you receive a written denial, an objection may be filed with Family Court (within 35 days of notification of the denial). In order to file the objection, you would need the following:
a) a copy of the denial letter;
b) a completed "Objection to Support Collection Unit Denial of Challenge to Driver's License Suspension" (Form 4-22)
c) a completed affidavit of service.
3) If you are in possession of these three items, the "objection" would be: filed with the Court (One Niagara Plaza, 3rd Floor - Support Magistrates Office), held for the 10-day rebuttal period, and then forwarded to the appropriate Judge. A decision would be rendered on the papers alone (without a hearing) and the parties would be advised of the disposition.